Credit cards (as well as debit cards, gift cards, reward cards, stored value cards, and other embossed form factors) are widely used in transactions, such as financial transactions made between a variety of individuals, businesses, and organizations. For example, credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, reward cards, stored value cards, and other embossed form factors may be used to purchase goods or services, pay for incurred expenses, obtain cash (via a “cash advance”), donate money to charitable organizations, and pay taxes, among other such uses.
These transactions may be conducted using any of several available methods. For example, credit card information is often acquired by “swiping” the credit card at a special credit card terminal that reads information encoded in the magnetic strip on the back of the credit card or that mechanically senses the card information embossed on the surface of the credit card. Credit card information may also be manually entered at a numbered keyboard or keypad, such as when sending credit card information through a telecommunications network such as the Internet to virtual merchants having an online storefront. When credit cards were first introduced, however, manual credit card imprinters were used with carbon-copy purchase slips to record (or “pressure etch”) the information embossed on the credit card (that is, the raised numbering and lettering). While electronic credit card processing has substantially reduced the use of manual imprinters, the manual approach still provides a handy backup when electronic processing is not available and, thus, most credit card issuers have continued to emboss processing information on the surface of the credit card.
Credit card transaction entities such as retail businesses and other merchants may encounter various challenges and higher costs in receiving credit card payments. The various payment processors providing credit card services to these transaction entities often charge fees for processing credit card payments on the merchants' behalf, and the fees may vary based on the nature of the transaction. For example, merchants may be charged higher fees for “card-not-present” transactions (e.g., performed by the purchaser manually entering their credit card information at a keyboard or a keypad) than for “card-present” transactions (e.g., physically “swiping” the credit card at a credit card terminal at a local retailer). This is partly because “card-present” transactions are less likely to be fraudulent and can be more readily verified using additional equipment (such as “swipe” credit card terminals), whereas “card-not-present” transactions do not necessarily require the physical presence of a valid credit card but, instead, merely require knowledge of the information pertaining to the card. Therefore, retail brick-and-mortar merchants have a good financial incentive to use credit card terminals in lieu of permitting customers to manually input credit card information, but merchants “in the field” or virtual merchants (i.e., on-line merchants) may not have any practical means to utilize credit card terminals. These shortcomings also seemingly contribute to preventing individuals from receiving personal credit card payments from other individuals because of the lack of clean, easy, “card-present” methods for processing such payments.
One option available to these merchants is to read credit card information using a portable computing device. This approach is typically accomplished utilizing an additional connector to the portable computing device through which a credit card is “swiped” and the information encoded in the credit card's magnetic strip is obtained. However, additional connectors are inconvenient, and embedding credit card swipe devices into portable computing devices is suboptimal because of space requirements and form factor limitations.